Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Flashcards
1
Q
What is the assumption of healthy normality?
A
- Western psychology is founded on the assumption of healthy normality
- Given healthy environment and lifestyle humans, by their nature, will be happy and content
- Psychological suffering is seen as abnormal
- Conceptualised as disease/syndrome
2
Q
What is the prevalence of psychological suffering?
A
- In any year almost 36% of adult population in the U.S. will meet criteria for mental disorder
- 1 in 4 in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year
- Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide –> close to 800,000 people die due to suicide every year
- Suicide is the second leading cause of death in 15-29 year olds
3
Q
What is the assumption of destructive normality
A
- ACT suggests that the root of this suffering is human language itself
- ACT views the ‘mind’ not as a discrete thing or entity but as a complex set of cognitive processes (or behaviours) that rely on language
- As such, in ACT mind is a metaphor for human language
4
Q
What is the relational frame theory (RFT) basis of human suffering?
A
- Relational frame theory (RFT) provides as behavioural account for language and other complex human behaviour
- At the heart of this theory is the principle of relational responding
- The idea that humans can learn bi-directional arbitrary relationships between stimuli
- Arbitrarily related stimuli can come to control behaviour in the absence of a direct conditioning history
- Verbal (relational) basis of human suffering
- Principles derived from RFT underpin much of acceptance and commitment theory
5
Q
Why is language the cause of human suffering
A
- Humans are unique in that we are the only species in which bi-directionality occurs between symbols during learning
- We are able to experience fear, pain, pleasure etc in the absence of the actual stimuli that evoke such reactions
- Through a process called transformation of function, derived relational responding gives language its power both good and bad
6
Q
What is transformation of function?
A
- The property that gives arbitrarily applicable relational responding its psychological significance, is the transformation of stimulus function
- If a stimulus has a particular psychological function (e.g. Fear) then in a context that selects that function as appropriate, the functions of related stimuli may also be transformed in accordance with the relation
7
Q
What is experiential avoidance?
A
- It is proposed that human language creates varying degrees of psychological suffering for us all –> one of the key ways is through a process called avoidance (negative reinforcement)
- There is an obvious evolutionary advantage to being able to figure out how to avoid or get rid of problems and/or aversive situations
- In the physical world this can have major advantages
8
Q
How does experiential avoidance work in the psychological world?
A
Attempts to alter the form, frequency, or situational sensitivity of historically produced negative private experience (emotions, thoughts, bodily sensations)
- Addiction - originates from an attempt to avoid or get rid of unwanted thoughts, boredom, loneliness, pain
- Anxiety - at the core of anxiety lies a major pre-occupation with trying to get rid of anxiety
- OCD - the performance of elaborate rituals in order to avoid negative thoughts
9
Q
Why is experiential avoidance so pervasive?
A
- Derived relational responding allows the experience of psychological trauma to be present in the absence of the event itself
- Socially encouraged and modelled –> the child who deliberately stops crying does not necessarily become happy only silent
- Emotions/cognitions are treated as causes
- Immediate effects are positive
10
Q
What are the goals of ACT?
A
- Develop acceptance of private experiences that are out of personal control
- Increase sense of choice, clarification of values, committed action, and to learn by experience
11
Q
What is the ACT approach?
A
- Confronting the agenda
- Clients typically want to get rid of whatever private experience (traumatic memories, anxiety, depression, urge to drink etc) that has brought them to therapy - Control as the problem, not the solution
- In ACT there is no attempt to reduce, rid, avoid, or control private experience
- The goal of ACT is to allow these private experiences to come and go without the client struggling with them
12
Q
The are the 6 core processes of ACT?
A
- Defusion
- Acceptance
- Contact with the present moment
- The ‘observing self’
- Values
- Committed action
13
Q
6 core processes of ACT: Defusion
A
- Step back from our thoughts
- To see thought for what they are, an ever changing stream of words, sounds and pictures
- As we defuse thoughts, they have much less impact
14
Q
6 core processes of ACT Acceptance
A
- Making room for unpleasant private experiences
- Allowing them to come and go without struggling or running from them
15
Q
6 core processes of ACT: Contact with the present moment
A
- Bringing full awareness to your here and now experience
- Fully engaged in whatever you are doing
- Mindfulness exercises
